May 18, 2005 - Honestly, after playing Dragon Quest VIII and Radiata Stories, there was little impressive about this demo. The playable version shown by Square Enix was a Japanese version, so deciphering menu commands in battle proved daunting. The environments were blocky and the textures were jagged and blurred, the character models were small and pixilated.

May 2, 2005 - I don't think I've ever been as confused when playing a game as I was with Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song. Square Enix's remake of its classic SNES title of the same name (minus the Minstrel Saga part) is a baffling experience, a game that lacks direction. I've only played for a few hours, but I swear Square Enix slipped in some crazy pills as a preorder bonus with the game.

April 27, 2005 - Are you a big import gamer? Were you disappointed that we didn't have a Now Playing in Japan column last week? Then you've followed the right link (and we didn't have the column last week because we assumed you'd be disappointed that there were only two games).
This weekly section of IGN will keep you up to date on what games were released over the previous week in Japan. If you want to keep informed of the import scene, be sure and check back every week.

April 11, 2005 - In preparation for the show and to let you know that we care (and we really do... the flowers are on the way, we promise), we've put together a fat list of all the "official" titles being shown at E3 in Los Angeles from May 12-14.
BUT WAIT! Before you write in with such enlightening observations as "u f3rg0t triPl3 so=0p3r sup3r bLu3 p0k3m0N!11!!!!1!!1!," you should realize that this list doesn't necessarily represent everything that a particular company will be showing at E3, just what they've confirmed that they'll be showing so far. There are sure to be plenty of surprise titles on the floor that publishers aren't ready to make public until closer to the opening of the show. Luckily we'll be updating this list every single day with any new confirmed titles that we learn of, so all you'll have to do is check back here for the most up-to-date list of E3 titles.
Those of you who are camping out by your computers can print out this list and highlight the games you're excited about and wait until May to read the latest as we poke, prod, and gussie-up to every damn game we can get our hands on at the show. Or just order a few dozen pizzas and read everything we post at E3. Lord knows we won't have time to!
Remember that this is just a small sample of the games that will be at the show. Make sure to check this page regularly, because we'll be updating the list as we get more confirmations of titles that we'll be seeing at E3.

February 4, 2005 - While the March/April time period had seemed like it may end up being somewhat slow for the import market, a few new release dates that just came our way from Japan today reveal that this is not the case. Set for release are some big names across all genres.

December 20, 2004 - Square Enix debuted both Romancing Saga and Radiata Stories in playable form at the Tokyo Game Show back in September. For this weekend's Jump Festa comic/game show, the company brought with it a new version of just one of the two: Romancing Saga (we presume the Radiata Stories team was too busy to make a new demo, seeing as how their game comes out first).

October 5, 2004 - Romancing Saga: Minstrel Saga caught our eye at last week's Tokyo Game Show due to its unique art style and memorable music. While you'll have to wait until 2005 to play the game like we did, you can at last get a look at it and sample some of the music via the trailer posted earlier today at Square Enix's website. The trailer offers the same footage as was shown at TGS.

September 26, 2004 - Square Enix producer Akitoshi Kawazu, known for the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Saga series revealed that he would be showing a game at the Tokyo Game Show, and this was it: Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song. Minstrel Song is a remake of the original Romancing SaGA, which in January of 1992 brought the Saga series of titles to the Super Famicom for the first time. Square would go on to make two more Super Famicom titles before bringing the SaGa series to the PlayStation in the form of Saga Frontier.